Thursday, September 20, 2012

Pick Your Poison


Pick your poison, we all die anyway;
Tell that to the babe who's lived just one day,
Whose sunrise paired not with sundown, whose feet never met ground.

Tell that to the survivor who's fought hard to stay,
Whose nights shriek in anguish, which the flippant dismiss.

Tell it to the wife who's laughed for the last time,
With the one who last night, seemed just to be fine.

Now tell me it matters not which of these you are,
Blank faces which speak, never searching quite deep -
Pick your poison, they say; like it's of no worth to have
just one more day.


Friday, September 14, 2012

So I cheated. I eliminated the need for that one more word.



Ah, there  you are. It's been awhile since we've had you around; you're most welcome to stay - forever, if you may.


Recognised myself.

In just that flashing thought;
"If this is a test -and even if it isn't - I want to ace it."



Tears creeping into our voices
One of frustration, the other sorrow
Both hearts breaking
One like ceramic, the other shadow

 
As she spoke of her ambition, her dreams, her passion, it stirred something within me
Voice of one kindred spirit to another
It stirred the embers of the very same in me, soul artist and writer, needing art as a body needs the air

 
And why we both turned the other way than we first intended to go, neither one knows. We just needed to be alone with our thoughts, and the voice of a kindred spirit.



I am convinced
This is my gift
To feel for others, as they feel
If not half of it, at least
understanding the vein of it, through which runs the heat of emotion, the spark of life;
For which man truly lives who does not feel?

 
So then am I naturally equipped with that which tunes one in to the very essence of life, which is the emotionality flowing through us all? Recognisable threads, ironic differences, stark exposure, veiled intentions; have we a moment more precious than when two souls are no more, no more than a single drop in the ageless stream?


Stood still and wrote, wrote it all out before I could take another step
Here in the half dark, in the humming silence and burning cold,
in the ghostly presence of what used to be.

So much can change in a couple of weeks; how can we discount the value of a year?

Yet, consider in your heart
Just what is causing you pain?
More than that which has once brought you joy,
Is there more than wounded vanity and carelessly bartered hopes?


So these people sitting in their shells, their caves, their selves,
It may not be known to them, but some are simply waiting for a hand to reach right in and shake them, shake them and say Wake up, without ever speaking the words.

Maybe we all need people like that, if only for a season.


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Not Such a Smug Lobster After All



Will this sweet cherishing never go away, grow old and fade?


It matters not where I am - on the bus facing someone's backpack, in a tower overlooking the Harbour, crossing the street double-quick...


This refocuses me
On the fact that
I want someone who makes the effort to know me, ask how my day was, what are you thinking of?


How life makes a mockery of our intentions.


You give me words to read, mull over, dream upon.

 
"I never want to leave!"
Exactly what I felt and said, by the shore.
 

The words weighed down like a stone in my heart
Though they were meant to step light there
So I swapped the tears for a fresh new start
As I took off into the air
  'til you find me.



So the day came
When I washed my hair with that shampoo
And soaped my body with that shower gel
All relics of you

Ran for it
Now the train tracks lead to you.


Object of curiosity
Stepping confidently out the cab
Like I belonged here
To this polished suburb
Where houses gleamed in muted dignity, white picket fences rose pretty from green lawns
Up to the door
And in

Feeling blisters on my toes but oh, to walk with you once more
You knew the look before I even lifted my shades



Well
It was just
Walking with you agan, standing by you
You being the right radius behind me;
Not so much stone face going on today but there you were in entirety;
All I could do was look at you and smile, because it is all so familiar and unstrange
Though we were far away from where it all began.

 
A year is a long time. I knew it then, you let me know it again now. In a year perhaps, we shall meet again
To say our goodbyes in July


Now the stations are marking the miles between us
Growing, growing
'Til once again we are on opposite sides of the globe

 
...and it was tremendously difficult to get my head (and others') around that, but I tried my best.
Maybe it killed some parts of me, but it did grow others.


There are no words right now
Nothing magical
Just warmth and gladness and cherishing, perhaps with some reassurance on top.


"I'm proud to be friends with someone who honours his girlfriend as he should - whomever she may be. And also there was always the part about me wanting you to be happy."



So that was what you meant when you said you didn't think I was the sort who needed frequent close proximity. You'd seen my independence even that early on.

 
Tonight we are asleep in the same city, but come tomorrow you will be going, going, gone back to your side of the world - the opposite side.

There, I've said it. Our city.
What do you think?



And this time you did it Aussie
The way we like it
See you later.